AI burnout, billion-dollar bets, and Silicon Valley’s Epstein problem

AI companies have been hemorrhaging talent the past few weeks. Half of xAI’s founding team has left the company — some on their own, others through “restructuring” — while OpenAI is facing its own shakeups, from the disbanding of its mission alignment team to the firing of a policy exec who opposed its “adult mode” feature.  On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten… Continua a leggere AI burnout, billion-dollar bets, and Silicon Valley’s Epstein problem

Cohere’s $240M year sets stage for IPO

Cohere surpassed $240 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025, highlighting strong enterprise AI demand as the Canadian startup positions itself for a potential IPO amid intensifying competition from OpenAI and Anthropic.

Meta plans to add facial recognition to its smart glasses, report claims

The feature, internally known as “Name Tag,” would allow smart glasses wearers to identify people and get information about them via Meta’s AI assistant.

Glean’s fight to own the AI layer inside every company 

Enterprise AI is shifting fast from chatbots that answer questions to systems that actually do the work across an organization. But who will own the AI layer that powers all of it?  Glean, which started as an enterprise search product, has evolved into what it calls an “AI work assistant,” aiming to sit beneath other AI… Continua a leggere Glean’s fight to own the AI layer inside every company 

Threads’ new ‘Dear Algo’ AI feature lets you personalize your feed

The platform’s new feature lets users tell Threads what they temporarily want to see more or less of in their feed.

How AI changes the math for startups, according to a Microsoft VP

Amanda Silver is a corporate vice president at Microsoft’s CoreAI division, where she works on tools for deploying apps and agentic systems within enterprises.

Former Founders Fund VC Sam Blond launches AI sales startup to upend Salesforce 

The startup, Monaco, has come out of stealth as an AI-native all-in-one CRM plus more system backed by names like the Collison brothers and Garry Tan.

This Sequoia-backed lab thinks the brain is ‘the floor, not the ceiling’ for AI

AI lab Flapping Airplanes just landed $180 million in seed funding from the likes of Google Ventures, Sequoia, and Index to do something most labs have quietly given up on: making models learn like humans instead of vacuuming up the internet. The founding team, made up of brothers Ben and Asher Spector and co-founder Aidan Smith, is… Continua a leggere This Sequoia-backed lab thinks the brain is ‘the floor, not the ceiling’ for AI

Hauler Hero collects $16M for its AI waste management software

Hauler Hero has seen its customer base, revenue, and head count double since the company raised its seed round in 2024.

India orders social media platforms to take down deepfakes faster

India’s new rules take effect February 20, tightening deepfake oversight and shrinking takedown windows to as little as two hours.